The committee said this meant the taxpayer was hit twice: some £630,000 for their severance packages and nearly £340,000 to rehire them. A further £15,000 payment to one of the re-engaged consultants was still “unexplained”, the report added.

Conservative MP Edward Leigh, PAC chairman, said: “This is not the way this committee expects public bodies to be run and reinforces the need in future for stronger controls and proper procedures for managing and using public money.”

EHRC chairman Trevor Phillips also came in for criticism. Leigh said Phillips “was in part responsible” for the ineffectiveness with which the board scrutinised the set-up process and challenged management’s proposals.

In a statement, the EHRC said: “We have accepted these criticisms from the PAC and – as the NAO has recognised – we are taking steps to improve our financial and performance reporting, and strengthen our governance arrangements.”